This week Mark and Dave speak with John Simmons, executive director of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, to discuss how to tolls, bonds and taxes may help pay for bridge and highway repairs among other topics.

A recent AP investigation found major grocery store chains across the country fail to provide food for areas that need it most. In Rhode Island some fifty-thousand people don’t have easy access to healthy foods, and most of them are in Providence county.

A small group of locals have been trying to open a grocery store on their own, but it’s taken a decade to get the project off the ground.

This week Mark and Dave discuss the outlook for retailers this holiday season with Paul DeRoche, senior vice president of government relations at the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.

According to DeRoche, retailers have noticed that millennials eschew aparrel in favor of devices like smart phones. For the holiday shopping season, DeRoche predicts sales volume will increase by 5 percent from 2014.

This week Mark and Dave sit down with president and CEO of Collette of Pawtucket, Dan Sullivan. Sullivan is a travel industry veteran, whose company organizes guided vacations and tours all over the world. The three talk about how the travel industry has been affected by the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, what travelers should know about security, and the growing popularity of Cuba as a travel destination.

This week Mark and Dave sit down with Taco Group Chairman and CEO John Hazen White, Jr.

Taco has recently begun the process of acquiring Italian company Askoll, a maker of high efficiency pumps. Hazen White describes the reasons behind the deal, and how Taco has been restructuring stateside for growth.

Woonsocket-based CVS Health will lay off 150 workers, including 70 in Rhode Island. The pharmacy chain described the layoffs as part of an operational review aimed at boosting efficiency.

"CVS Health continually reviews its operations in all of its markets and facilities across the U.S. to enhance efficiencies and ensure the Company remains in the best competitive position to improve the health outcomes of its patients and clients while lowering their overall health costs," CVS Health spokesman Mike DiAngelis wrote in an email to Rhode Island Public Radio.